10 The Great Barrier Reef via Cairns Australia

Forecast is 86 degrees and rain. Cairns is the gateway to the area's greatest natural wonders. inland it is the rain forest, off shore is the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef stretches 1400 miles north to south following the coastline. There are hundreds of individual reefs that make up the great barrier reef. We docked in Cairns at 8am, tour of GBR was 8:30 - 4:45. All on board was 5pm.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of nature. Visiting it was special, even if our views were not as colorful as the published commercial photos. It was still special.

The sail into Cairns was beautiful. This tug boat was on standby on the way in. On the way out the tugboat helped the cruise ship execute a 180 degree turn.

The excursion began with a 3/4 mile walk to the catamaran along the most beautiful board walk ever. One side was restaurants and shops, the other across the channel was untouched beauty. There were a lot of dive boats and reef tour boats in the marina.

After a two hour catamaran ride we arrived at the reefs, 50-60 km from Cairns. The reefs were easy to spot, i.e. the dark sections near the light colored sand bars with waves breaking. The ride was a bit rough, high winds and rain. Met new people who sat across the table from us: Dee and Jeff from Texas, and Mary a 69 year old die hard swimmer from Wisconsin. Mary swims in pools and is apprehensive about swimming in the ocean today. She says there is a fun across the lake swim in Wisconsin that Eric would like. We of course bragged about our children's accomplishments. What else do you talk about in a 2 hr boat ride?

Someone had a little trouble getting into the skin tight outfit. The outfit is not a wet suit but a barrier for jelly fish. Quinn could have used one this fall while swimming in Florida. He was stung by a jellyfish. You could tell it hurt.

OK he got in. We didn't worry too much about sunscreen. Phil should have. His exposed face is cheery red now! You can see the outline of the head piece.

Let's jump in and snorkel! I took my cell phone protected in a cheap plastic sleeve. It stayed dry but was a pain to work. I kept getting a mouth full of salt water every time I tried to take a photo, so I gave up on photos pretty quickly. Here are a few shots that I did take. I did get one underwater video, but this creepy crawly slow internet would probably crash if I tried to upload the video.